Former Tampa Bay quarterback Luke McCown passed his physical and officially signed with the Jaguars on Sunday, prompting the team to cut backup quarterback Todd Bouman.

General manager Gene Smith called the decision a "gut call." By all appearances, the risk seems substantial, given that McCown needs to sufficiently learn the playbook in a week as a contingency should starter David Garrard suffer an injury.

The team opens the season Sunday at Indianapolis, which means an injury to Garrard could prove damaging. Especially when considering the relative youth on the roster.

"You can keep three [quarterbacks]. You could go with two," Smith said. "You could do a lot of different things in terms of roster-building. You've got to do what's best for your situation, and I made a decision to do that."

Entering his sixth season, McCown, 28, owns a 1-6 career record as a starter for Tampa Bay and the Cleveland Browns and was beaten out for the Buccaneers' starting quarterback job by former Jaguar Byron Leftwich, who lost his starting job before the 2007 season to Garrard.

McCown has a career passer rating of 75.2, and he's completed 59.7 percent of his passes for nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions. McCown has been sacked 27 times, including 15 sacks in five games (three starts) during his 2007 season with the Bucs.

"We had done a lot of work on him, especially in 2007," Smith said. "We had a history on him all the way back to college. The substance of his character, the way he approaches playing the position. He was a guy that certainly if he became available to us, he was going to be under consideration. We feel like he's still a young, ascending player. I think he did some things in 2007 that were defining. I saw a guy improving in spite of the fact he wasn't winning all the games. I like his makeup. He's a lot like Todd [Bouman]."

An 11-year veteran, Bouman hasn't started a game since 2005, and he's started just six in a career that includes stints with the Jaguars, Minnesota, New Orleans, Green Bay and Baltimore.

"That was a difficult one," said Smith of his decision to cut Bouman. "None of them are easy." That comment held true especially for long-snapper Joe Zelenka, Smith said. An 11-year veteran and one of Jacksonville's most popular players, Zelenka was one of the surprise cuts Saturday, along with starting right tackle Tony Pashos and starting cornerback Brian Williams.

"You're telling people they can't be a part of your team," Smith said. "They have families just like I do. That's the one part that will never be easy for me."

But in the case of Pashos and Williams, Smith confirmed what their agents said about the two refusing to take pay cuts.

It appears now that the team will open the season with three rookie starters, but Smith said that decision is up to the coaching staff.

"The guys that are on our team right now have earned it," Smith said. "We've had some great positional battles."

In other news, seven members of the practice squad were revealed: receiver Tiquan Underwood, running back Josh Vaughan, fullback Brock Bolen, guard Cameron Stephenson, center Cecil Newton, safety Michael Desormeaux and defensive end Jeremy Navarre. The eighth member of the squad will probably be a quarterback.

"We have some guys that will make this as strong of a practice squad as we've ever had," Smith said. " ... We're bringing in guys that can compete to upgrade our roster in whatever role it may be. ... When you're on the practice squad, you're trying to earn whatever opportunity is out there. When it comes, hopefully they've done enough to take advantage of it."